1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to an improved data processing system and method. More specifically, the present application is directed to communicating configuration information over a standard interconnect link.
2. Description of Related Art
Fibre Channel (FC) is a high-speed transport technology that is used to build storage area networks (SANs). Although Fibre Channel can be used as a general-purpose network carrying asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), Internet Protocol (IP), and other protocols, FC has been primarily used for transporting small computer system interface (SCSI) traffic from servers to disk arrays. The Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) serializes SCSI commands into Fibre Channel frames. IP may be used for in-band simple network management protocol (SNMP) network management. Fibre Channel not only supports single-mode and multi-mode fiber connections, but coaxial cable and twisted pair as well.
Fibre Channel can be configured point-to-point, via a switched topology or in a FC arbitrated loop (FC-AL) with or without a hub. In FC disk enclosure systems, there may be multiple units cascaded using optical cables to form large storage systems. Usually, there is no communication between enclosures before a valid and stable FC signal has been established. The process of establishing an arbitrated loop is referred to as loop initialization process (LIP).
There are, however, many situations where a need exists for storage enclosures to communicate with each other before a stable FC link is established. For example, storage enclosures may need to communicate speed of FC links used for negotiation and types of enclosure system, such as controller or expansion, in order to configure the system correctly before a stable FC link can be established.
Currently, the best solution is static configurations. Before enclosures are connected to each other, a user must configure the systems correctly, such as by using information stored in vital product data (VPD) to establish the configuration. Such methods require user intervention, which is not dynamic and is susceptible to operator error.